Lie Huo Jiao Chou Volume 1 Chapter 8

____ 

"There is still a quarter of an hour left."

____

　　As he listened, Xuan Ji felt that it was a little familiar. Suddenly, he realized — this post was the one he came across on the plane and just glanced at.The original poster received a lot of hate comments such as "nutcase" and "liar". Before he could refresh the post for an update, he was already unable to find it.
　　
　　Ping Qian Ru was born with a soft voice, and afraid that he couldn't hear it, she strode forward while trying hard to endure the unbearable dark and cold air, reading the post roughly again. 

　　Then she said: "Later, the original poster posted it again, but it was deleted just after it was put up. Probably the content said that she is a failed mother and secretly took his things while her child went to school. That time, a few strange symbols were in her son's diary. At first, it was just pen scribbles. She saw it and didn't take it seriously, but recently, the symbols are getting more and more dense. Yesterday, it was drawn with blood unexpectedly, and filled the whole book. It was terrifying to look at. The child's behaving more and more strangely. She also took pictures of those drawings... I... ss!..." 

　　Ping Qian Ru suddenly tasted rusty blood as there was a sudden itchy feeling under her nose. She reached out and touched it, finding out that she unknowingly had two lines nosebleeds. The cold moisture scratched the lining of her mouth and nose. She really couldn't move. She tried to push forward forcefully, and the laptop slipped down on the smooth floor towards the door. It stopped just right there, the screen facing the room. 

　　Before Xuan Ji could look back, Sheng Lingyuan had already spoken first. 

　　Softly, he read out the sacrificial oration and then sighed: "Ah, this is interesting." 

　　"What?" Ping Qian Ru did not understand what he was saying, but as soon as the voice swept past her ear, she trembled in instinct as if she was a little animal encountering a predator, "He, he, he, did he speak out ? Is it speaking to me or cursing me?" 

　　"Tell old Xiao," Xuan Ji harshly opened his jaws, "The demon said that the word 'help' was written on it."

　　Xiao Zheng listened to this retelling, and at first was stunned for a few seconds, then he suddenly reacted to what Xuan Ji meant, his hairs raising: "Find this boy and let the local branch bring people back at once, no matter what method it takes! Quickly!"

　　The process of sacrificing "living animals" was certainly not as simple as carrying a kitchen knife around to chop people up. In daily life, "an unnatural death" was certainly not an even that's highly likely to happen, but if it was expanded on a nationwide-scale, the "the number of irregular deaths" was still a very considerable number. 

　　As a "living sacrifice" was impossible to be so "ordinary", their way of death will be more complicated and cruel, which made the operation much more difficult. 

　　The murderer behind the scenes was unlikely to keep a place to commit crimes, because this was not a small number after all. If in a short period of time, there would be a surge in the number of deaths from accidental disappearances in the same area, it would surely attract the attention of various local security departments.

　　If the "thousand people" living sacrifice was not an estimate, it's simply calculated as "one thousand people". To sacrifice these people in one lunar cycle, an average of more than 30 people would be killed per day. Slaughterhouses might not have this efficiency. 

　　Besides, he still had to be imaginative in killing. 

　　Then, how to accomplish this?

　　Either the murderer behind the scenes was a huge organization which had completely sufficient financial resources and manpower — this was a small possibility. As Xuan Ji said, wealthy people, people with skills, and people with social status, they have a lot of ways to solve the problems. Who could give enough support this kind of trivial matter ?

　　Or... the "living animal" that was sacrificed did not seem to be dead, nor missing , and was still living within the crowd without any abnormality. 

　　"Archives Department!" Xiao Zheng roared, "Focus on the case related to 'parasites'!"

　　Outside the hospital's family lounge, Ping Qian Ru wiped her nosebleed and asked in a low voice: "Director Xuan, what exactly does 'help' mean? What did Director Xiao understand?"

　　"The one writing the 'sacrifice'..." Xuan Ji spoke out one word at a time, he had never made a long story short in his whole life, "...is the 'sacrifice' itself." 

　　If this boy was not a thousand-year-old ghost who could write the ancient sacred writing with his bare hands, then why could he draw such symbols? 

　　Only if he himself became a "sacrifice".

　　Asking for help explained that he knew of his situation, but strangely, while drawing a shocking message of help on his notebook, on the other hand, he still lived a day-to-day routine, and even "mended his own ways", from a problem teenager to a good kid. 

　　In that case, the question was who was this "good child"... or what is it? 

　　At 9:35, Deviant Control Office finally locked in the ident.i.ty and location of the original poster. It was a boy who was in 2nd year in middle school, having a single-parent family, living with a mother who was highly-controlling, so at this time, he should be at home. 

　　The headquarters immediately notified the local branch office and the field staff came out from their nest and moved in full swing.

　　"Director Xiao, we have accessed all the files related to 'parasite' from the archives, and there are total of thirteen dangerous species with parasitic abilities, most of which are mutant plants. But these plants normally do not have the ability to think. The host dries up completely after parasitism. The host then dies and the parasite would look for the next target. The only parasite that matches your description is a b.u.t.terfly..."

　　"I found it!" Ping Qian Ru took out the tablet out of nowhere, trembling at the same time as she showed her powerful searching ability, quickly turning the archives of the Head Office upside down, "It is a kind of b.u.t.terfly, the formal name is 'Mirage b.u.t.terfly'. It says that its larvae are only the size of sesame seed, and if human ate this by mistake, it will enter the human body, develop and mature within 24 hours, and then control the human nervous system through special secretions.

　　"At this time, if the fMRI scanning is performed on the infected person's brain, a significant increase in the amygdala activity will be found**. Other evidence also shows that the infected person's brain still has its own consciousness, but the resulting nerve impulse no longer can be transmitted to the a.s.sociated effector organs. The Mirage b.u.t.terfly does not have its own intelligence, but it is highly imitative and good at making templates out of the other people around the infected person. After the infected person's brain dies, the b.u.t.terfly completely replaces the infected person's brain and can survive using this ident.i.ty and reproduce. People around that person will not be aware of this for decades — that... isn't that the same as saying that the body gets controlled by something else?" 

　　Xuan Ji didn't say anything, it was already taking his utmost to maintain those chains.

　　The sacrificial oration was almost finished, only one person was missing. The caster only needed to randomly sow the refined b.u.t.terfly larvae in the crowd — the most horrifying thing in this case was the 999 people who have already been sacrificed. 

　　They were parasitized by b.u.t.terflies, and their consciousness was painfully forced to watch. What's even more desperate than this helpless chronic death was that no one around them even noticed of it. 

　　Everyday, people would do the same thing as they did yesterday, repeating what they said yesterday, blend into the schools, companies, and society. Those friends who they got along with just pa.s.sed by their skin and body, came and went, mindlessly talking with a mischievous b.u.t.terfly.

　　It turned out that a person could disappear so painlessly, then the so-called "soul" of human beings, wasn't it just a big joke? 

　　Of the one thousand living sacrifices, only one mother felt the abnormality — and she was still highly controlling of her son! 

　　At 10:00 —
　　
　　More than a dozen low-profile black SUV secretly encircled an ordinary residential building, and the well-trained field workers sneaked out, and the force divided into several roads and buildings.

　　The anxious mother rushed to find some so-called "master" and his contact information on the Internet. The search bar was full of things with the words "enlightening" and "dispelling evil spirits". Her creepy son was in his bedroom, the door was not closed, and his back could be seen from the living room — he was wearing his headphones, playing with his mobile phone while doing homework, no different from a "normal" teenager.

　　However, she just had a feeling that she couldn't describe .

　　At this time, the doorbell rang. Her hands trembled and she gathered her bearings again: "Who is it ?" 

　　"Taking a look at your water meter, the property was notified yesterday." 

　　"Oh... coming, didn't see the notice, Who's brat that tore it up again?" The woman muttered, got up and opened the door. She was scared by the field worker in black uniform at the door. She unconsciously threw the door closed again. A field worker quickly blocked the door frame and a made a shushing gesture at her. The woman clutched at her throat in fright and found that she could not make a sound.

　　The field workers got into the house like cats, their footsteps quiet. However, the "boy" wearing headphones in the room seemed to have had ears behind him. He didn't look back, just jumped up and ran. 

　　"The target jumped off the window!" The woman opened her mouth and screamed silently — this was the eighth floor!

　　In a flash , the "boy" had already jumped off from the window, and there was something flashing behind it — like a pair of huge b.u.t.terfly wings, flying towards the night sky. 

　　At the next moment, a whirlwind suddenly swept over out of nowhere, and covered the big "b.u.t.terfly". Immediately thereafter, the three field workers lying in waiting on the rooftop leaped down and pulled out a big net from the air, covering him completely in the middle! 

　　At 10:15— 

　　"Report, we have taken control of the target! After inspection, it is confirmed to be infected with the Mirage b.u.t.terfly. Requesting for the Head Office to instruct the next action!" 

　　"Director Xiao, I found the records of the Head Office archives, we seem to have lost a can of Mirage b.u.t.terfly eggs in our library, and we haven't found it yet." 

　　"Isolate all the people working in the archives for me. This matter has to be investigated one by one! Why was the loss of such kind of dangerous item not reported?" Xiao Zheng coldly squeezed the sentence out of his teeth, having difficulty in restraining his anger, "Connect me to the Reparations Department at the scene." 

　　"Leader! Director Xiao contacted you and asked whether you know the way to solve the Mirage b.u.t.terfly?" 

　　"Mirage b.u.t.terfly, are you talking about 'human-faced b.u.t.terfly'?" Sheng Lingyuan learned the tone of Ping Qian Ru, repeated the word in Mandarin, and then smiled as if taking joy in disaster. "This is not good, human-faced b.u.t.terfly is difficult to deal with." 

　　Xuan Ji: "Cryogenic surgery." 

　　"You useless c.r.a.p!" Xiao Zheng murmured, "The cryosurgery should firstly inactivate the b.u.t.terflies, if not, once this clever thing felt invading external forces, it will destroy the host indiscriminately. This process would take at least twenty-four hours. From where am I supposed to steal twenty-four hours for you?"

　　"But it is not impossible," At this time, Sheng Lingyuan opened his mouth, as if the ritual was completed, and a little light blood emerged on the corners of his eyes. "The last sacrifice must die at midnight, and if the time went wrong, the caster will be in trouble. Since the sacrifice has already fallen into your hands, the solution is to resolve it earlier — if you can't save the person, can't you kill them?"

　　Xiao Zheng: "What did he say? " 

　　"There is still forty-eight hours," Xuan Ji looked up, his beautiful phoenix eyes were soaked in mist by the water vapor, but there seemed to be a fire in his pupils. "The demon said, as long as you catch the caster before the 'turn of midnight'."

　　"Director Xiao! The boy who was parasitized by the b.u.t.terfly started drawing the rituals sixteen days ago. The day before that should be the time of infection. On that day, he muddled up in the Internet cafe for a day, and we got the surveillance records of the Internet cafe and found this person!" 

　　"Show me!" 

　　He saw a blurry screenshot of the video, a moustache with a cigarette in it was photographed.

　　"Director Xiao, this is the 'backpacker' who was rescued from the great valley of the Red Lake, he is the leader." 

　　Ping Qian Ru covered her mouth with her hand: " Sister Bi! Sister Bi is with them!"

　　Sheng Lingyuan looked at the thick fog outside the window and suddenly said: "There is still a quarter of an hour left." 

　　Xuan Ji quivered —

　　Hold on, the concept of 12 o'clock at night as the turn of midnight was influenced by the modern Western calendar. The ancient time began at 11 o'clock !
　　　

**The author has something to say:

fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging; and activity in the amygdala is considered to be a.s.sociated with negative emotions and fear